The amateur film and photography industry has taken off in the past few years with the introduction of portable video and still-frame cameras that may be used to record or photograph various activities, particularly, high speed and adventure activities. There are various types of portable camera systems on the market including those that may be mounted to a person, which film from the viewpoint of the individual, and those that are line driven or sled mounted, which film from the viewpoint of an onlooker.
However, there are several shortcomings with the devices currently on the market. One shortcoming is that they are expensive to use. For example, some sled mounted camera platforms rent for about $4000/week, and the Skycam system, a spool-driven platform, costs $60,000/event to rent and approximately $2.1 million to buy. In addition, most of the line driven camera platforms are large and cumbersome and are mounted to cable systems, which themselves are heavy and unwieldy to handle, making the camera platform less portable. Cable systems are also dangerous as the cables may snap and cause injury. In fact, in the professional filming industry, riggers' unions require that cables be replaced after each use. In addition to being dangerous, the cables themselves function as a pivot point, and exaggerate rocking (side-to-side movement) of the camera platform.
Another shortcoming is that current camera platforms have a single mount point for the camera, which limits the possible angles of video/photographs and number of recording devices and accessories (e.g., lighting) available for each shot. Also, top mounts, which facilitate aerial shooting, are generally unavailable.
Further, current camera platforms are only designed for filming and photography and may not be used to perform other functions such as the transportation of objects or people from one point to another.
The movable platform system disclosed herein seeks to improve upon existing camera platforms by providing a movable platform system that is multipurpose, less expensive, safer, and more portable than the current camera platforms.